Ad-Aware 10

... completely & MBAM?
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https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2177215&postcount=3
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http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=31704&view=findpost&p=143213

 

I am of the firm belief that judging a company or anything else based purely on history is a load of complete hogwash.

Every nation on earth has a shady period of history but would we refuse to visit them.?..No of course not and the very idea is preposterous to say the least.
Ive noticed on this thread that people persist in using misinformed historical information to discredit ad-aware and i think these people need to be re-educated on courtesy and ethical non-biased judgement but instead would rather try to destroy a product and the company purely on single historical events.
Again more hogwash and totally uncalled for,
The adaware company is entitled to mistakes like all of us and NOBODY is immune to this so i find it patronising and rude to be derogatory towards adaware and other software companies.

 

Are you sure they haven't fixed that already? Just tried a scan with MBAM Free here and once I closed the gui, there was nothing left (no process, no service, no nothing).

 

No, I have been stop using it 6 months ago (due to above mentioned reason).

Edit:
Just now MBAM reinstalled and tested, it was as you said:
"once I closed the gui, there was nothing left (no process, no service, no nothing)."
Thanks!

 

I stopped using it many many years ago when they were messing around developing a none existent new version. While doing that, they stopped updating the current version abandoning their users of which there were many. This went on for about a year or more IIRC. That's why I keep an extra long barge pole handy...

 

@ Beethoven1770.. thanks.

Hi all, Lavasoft guy here. Been with the company for 6 years as a malware analyst.

If you have any questions about anything being discussed in this thread I'll do my best to answer them, so, go for it.

Andy

 

you can check out the previous complaints on this thread to begin with

 

@GERY.
Look i thought i had expressed the situation clearly in one of my previous posts and yet you insist on dredging up more garbage.
As for the complaints you speak of..Well all they are surmount to nothing more than snide comments about the size of a program and piffle like program updates.
Its perfectly simple and i address this to you and everyone else contributing to this nonsense that if you dont like a program then simply do not use it but instead an army of haters has arisen from the depths of depravity to try and crush a product.
Just remember people are trying to make an honest living out there.

 

thanx for the clarification Bethoven . Personally i have no problems here with LAVASOFT. I have been using it since 2005 on and off and never found anything too big. I just wanted to be helpful to the guy who jumped in and introduced himself as LS guy.
I want to be out of any sort of discussion here .
thanx in advance GERY

 

I agree - LS Andy here are my suggestions:

1) Lavasoft should integrate automatic program updates soon.
2) Remove the warning "ACTIVATE the identity protection" if someone isn't living in the US and therefore can't activate it.
3) Remove the obtrusive message "Ad-Aware will continue to protect your computer against malware" from the system tray icon.

If you have any questions, please contact me. Thank you LS Andy.

 

@ ght1 – You couldn't be clearer in your comments - feedback like this is solid gold. Thanks.

@ gery - I preferred to answer direct questions rather than interpret all the comments - it would have led to long missive. But, I don't want to shy away from anything. You asked, so now you have to read it

Re: detection engines
Currently a blend of VIPRE's (GFI) & Lavasoft's.

Re: bloatware
It's a vague term - more clarification would help. What is bloatware and what would it take to not be bloatware?

Re: no auto program upgrades
The lack of auto updates sucks, no doubt. You want it, we'll make it happen. Just say the word.

Re: there better free AV products
Hard to really quantify this but that opinion is in line with AV-Test's results.

Lavasoft submitted Ad-Aware 10 Pro to AV-Test to get an assessment from a third party about where the Pro product stands. It received a number of certifications from AV-test which suggests that it's better than some might claim. That said, Ad-Aware 10 is not fighting for top spot amongst the "competition". (BTW I'm a malware lab guy, not a sales person - the other vendors are not competition to me, they're my peers. I don't care which AV you use, just use one).

We pulled Ad-Aware 10 Pro out of AV-Test for the March/April run. Continued testing won't reveal anything else we need to tighten up - we know what we need to do. We're working on v 11 right now and are quietly confident of comparable/better results than the vast majority of the free and paid products.

we plan to submit Ad-Aware 11 Free to AV-Test when it's ready. It might be ready in time for the May/June tests, but it will be a big ask. Failing that, it will be back for Jul/Aug and onwards. We'll submit Ad-Aware 11 Free for public testing to show that if you don't want to pay for Ad-Aware, Free will still protect you.

Re: The history
Lavasoft was acquired by a venture capital company who owned other businesses. Lavasoft remains it’s own entity. I've worked at Lavasoft pre and post acquisition and the will (and the funding) to improve Ad-Aware has increased. There really is nothing more to it than that.

Re: registration issues
Here it is. If you don't register, Ad-Aware looks the other way. We'll keep protecting you beyond the 30 days if you don't register. We're still good guys even though some people think otherwise. For the record, the process bugs me too. We'll think of something better.

Re: Ad-Aware became too big for it's britches
Another perspective is that for a small research/dev. team (8 in total), Lavasoft made a security app that punches above it's weight. At least, that's what I'll tell myself as I cry myself to sleep tonight

However, the comment "Just stick with your bread & butter" resonates. The fact is, the "bread and butter" for Ad-Aware was adware. That battle has pretty much been won, so we turned our attention to the other crap out there; Trojans, root kits, viruses, worms - it wasn't a conscious change, it just happened naturally around 2006/2007 when malware volumes really exploded. It may be time to retire the name "Ad-Aware" - maybe the name holds it back since it doesn't reflect what it is capable of.

Anyway, point taken - solve a problem and solve it well. That attitude never goes out of fashion.

re: I guess they want you to buy Ad-Aware Pro
Yes, of course - infrastructure, developers and research has to be paid for somehow. If you don't want to pay for it though, we won't penalise you by distributing a half-assed security app. See below.

re: Running processes
The free version of Ad-Aware is a lot more hard-core than people realise. It monitors files being written to disk so it can stop malware before it can be executed. It can locate, unhook & remove kernel-mode root kits and will also monitor running processes if you've enabled that feature. Our preference is to block malware before it can run. Failing that, we'll get it when it tries to run, and failing that if we catch it in memory, we'll kill it.

All these monitors have to be running constantly. Without them, the malware can run unhindered. The only time you know that an infection has occurred is after an on demand scan. By then, the system has been compromised for a period of time without your knowledge.

Time for coffee. If you have a question, I'll try my best to answer.

Andy

 

Thanks a lot, your explanations were really useful.

About running processes:

What if I already have other antivirus up and running and only want to use Ad-Aware as a second opinion solution?

The changelog for v.10.4 stated that:

If only the on-demand version is installed why is there still one process about web browsing protection running (even I has disabled this feature from the gui). Shouldn't there be no process at all (since it don't have to monitor anything, only remains dormant there until the user decides to do a right-click scan)?

 

Ad-Aware detects the presence of lot of anti-virus programs. During install, if Ad-Aware recognises the one you're using, it suggests the compatible install/second line of defense option. Alternatvely, you can choose to install the compatible install/second line of defense version (this option is part of the installation procedure) which means that the stuff that conflicts with your main AV won't run.

You're right - this is quite inelegant. Onto the backlog queue this goes.

 

4 ) Don't display all the inactive icons in the GUI
5 ) Don't force the user to register for a free version
6 ) The systray icon shouldn't disappear when opening the GUI
7 ) The GUI shouldn't be fullscreen size
8 ) It should be compatible with Win8

I think that's all.

 

Isn't it already compatible with W8

 

9 ) Eicar.com has been deleted without any warning - sometimes the pop up doesn't work or is in the background of the browser window.

I hope you can fix some of the mentioned problems, see you later Ad-Aware.

 

@ 7anon

Fixed - Windows 8 support listed on http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

 

Thanks!